Grandmother catches glimpse of her grandson, a Navy medic serving in Iraq

By Rose Hooper

"I was watching 'Good Morning America' and suddenly there was my grandson Ronnie on the TV - they were interviewing some of the troops in Iraq and they picked him. I couldn't believe it," Mashburn said from her Clayton Drive home.

"I screamed, 'That's Ronnie! That's Ronnie!' so loud I'm sure all the neighbors heard me."

Mashburn's 30-year-old grandson serves in the U.S. Navy as a hospital corpsman second class in Operation Enduring Freedom.

"Ronnie didn't get to say much, just who he was, and then they went on to something else," said Mashburn, who since that moment has been glued to her television set hoping she might get another glimpse of him.

His parents, Ronald and Shirley Mashburn, who live in Stanley, missed seeing him on GMA but received a phone call from him two weeks ago.

"I answered the phone and it was Ronnie," said his dad. "One of the news reporters let him use their cell phone. He said, 'Dad, I'm calling from the front line in Iraq, and I only have one minute to talk. How's everybody? Don't worry about me; I'll be home soon. I love you.' And that's all he got to say."

Although he is a Navy HM2, Mashburn is stationed with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, and takes his orders from Lt. Col. Royal Mortenson, according to his father.

"When the Marines took Baghdad, I was watching television and the reporters were interviewing our troops on the scene. I didn't see Ronnie, but I could hear his voice in the background, no mistake about it," said his father.

Overseas mail is slow, his father said from experience. "Sometimes it takes a month to get a letter. I've checked the mail every day, but we haven't received anything from Ronnie yet."

"Ronnie was one of the first deployed, so maybe he will be one of the first to come home," his grandmother said.

Stationed at Camp Lejeune, Mashburn joined the Navy 12 years ago when he was 18.

"I know he was on the front line; he's a leader, always has been," said Mashburn, who hasn't seen her grandson since last June. "Ronnie has a strong will, but he also has compassion. You've got to have both to go into the medical field.

"He sort of took after me," said Mashburn, who has worked in nursing "for years." Recent injuries have taken her off the hospital floor, but at 75 she still continues working as a private care nurse.

Now days most of her time is spent thinking about her grandson's welfare. "That's all I've got in my head," she said.

Her brother, Richmond Lambert, died in World War II, and her son Bruce, a Vietnam vet, died from Agent Orange, she said.

"I know Ronnie is doing what he wants to be doing and what he's good at. But he's a bit of a daredevil and that worries me. I probably won't stop worrying till he gets home," said Mashburn.